It happened again. Someone I haven't heard from in years has a legal problem and "just wants to ask a few basic questions."
No responsible licensed professional answers such things, including lawyers. What the client thinks is simple may not be simple at all. But if a professional advisor treats it as simple, that's validation. Later, when it turns out things were complex and should have been handled as such, who do you think takes the blame?
So now they think I'm being a dick.
So it goes.
@Professor_Stevens "Oh you work with computers? Can you fix my..."
Same thing.
Except a computer technician can't be held liable for malpractice later.
However, I know what you mean as a social phenomenon. My stepfather-in-law's brother (who is a lawyer, btw) used to see me once a year at my mother-in-law's annual Thanksgiving gathering. One year, he shows up, spots me, and his first words to me are, "Steve! I'm glad your here! I need you to fix my email."
I won't quote what I said back, but we haven't spoken to each other since. (And I'm okay with that.)
@Professor_Stevens mebbe not held liable in court but privately? any subsequent issue would be my fault as well. No thanks
Quite. When we put our hands on someone's computer, whatever goes wrong next gets hung around our necks: "It never did this before you messed with it."
And there's no safe way out of it. My in-laws are Mac people. My wife and I know nothing of the Mac. But, in an argument some year back, they suddenly revealed how they "knew" we had been using that as an excuse to refuse to help them with their computers.
As though computer folk have some duty to help them. Sheesh.
@Professor_Stevens I made that pretty clear years ago to my own relatives: Use Linux or go to the shop
Geez, my last Windows was XP. What do I know about this stuff nowadays.
Mother in law uses Linux on her laptop now btw. Very low maintenance usually for the dist upgrade.
I haven't used Linux in a decade, but will probably go back soon. Win11 is not only the world's greatest trojan, it seems clear that MS wants to abandon consumer-level support altogether. Don't be surprised if some sort of community-driven "Windows Cozy" edition is all we're left with (might be good, actually).
I dropped Linux because there were no truly compatible word processor options. Open/LibreOffice's .doc files all had problems. How's that today?
@Professor_Stevens dunno, I'm a programmer and gamer. Not much of text work for me
I did use Libre for a presentation for the first time in years. It felt horrible.
I actually love the entire LibreOffice suite. Lately, however, I've been using the Google equivalents. They have the advantage of being online so I can get to my files via anyone's Web browser.
But the show-stopper was people demanding that I use MS-Word .doc formats. Ten years ago, even simple formatting seemed to break when you used Open/LibreOffice to create or read a .doc.
I'm going to give it another try, though. Win11 is just too intrusive and I am sick of playing sysadmin.